Less than 48 hours after Pete Wentz denied that Fall Out Boy was reuniting and told the Tribune "don't hold your breath that it's happening," the Chicago-area quartet’s website revealed Monday that the band has a new album and tour on the way.

"You can take a breath now,” Wentz tweeted immediately after the announcement, likely a response to his quote in Monday’s Tribune.

Fall Out Boy is scheduled to perform a series of intimate shows worldwide beginning Monday with a performance at Subterranean in Bucktown. Tickets for the hometown show sold out in less than five minutes, but fans who missed out will have the opportunity to see them when they perform May 16 at the Riviera Theatre.

"When we were kids the only thing that got us through most days was music," said the message on the band's website. "It's why we started Fall Out Boy in the first place. This isn't a reunion because we never broke up. We needed to plug back in and make some music that matters to us."

According to a press release sentout Monday on behalf of the band, their new album – a follow-up to 2008’s “Folie a Deux” – will be called “Save Rock and Roll” and will be released May 6/7 – the 10th anniversary of Fall Out Boy's first full-length studio album, “Take This To Your Grave.”

The release added that the photo posted on Fall Out Boy’s website of all four band members throwing records into a bonfire was taken on the Old Comiskey Park grounds, also known as the site of Disco Demolition Night in 1979. A bonfire can also be seen in the promo video posted on the band’s website for their new drum-heavy single, “My Songs Know What You did in the Dark (Light Em Up).”

Rumors of a Fall Out Boy reunion began circulating Jan. 25 when a website called propertyofzack.com reported the band was reuniting after a three-year hiatus. Just like Wentz, Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman denied the report.

Asked about the fan reaction to the story Saturday at the two-year anniversary celebration of Angels & Kings in the Hard Rock Hotel, Wentz admitted the positive response was flattering and unexpected.

"Of course it feels nice," Wentz said. "Honestly, I didn't expect it. It blows my mind when people actually care and give a (crap), which is good because it manages my expectations. When I do things that don't get a reaction, I think 'That's OK, I didn't think it would.'"

Since announcing their hiatus in 2009, Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley went on to release "Ironiclast" with their heavy metal band The Damned Things in 2010, while singer Patrick Stump released his debut solo album, "Soul Punk," in 2011 and made a cameo on Fox's "House" last year.

Wentz created the reggae-ska-pop band Black Cards in 2010 — which became an electronic dance music duo after the departure of female vocalist Bebe Rexha last year — and released the EP "Use Your Disillusion" in July on iTunes. The Wilmette native will host the second season of Oxygen's "Best Ink," which is scheduled to premiere in the spring, and release his novel, "Gray," which he'll sign Feb. 19 at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville.

"People came out of the woodwork for a little bit," Wentz said Saturday of the reaction of his friends and family to the reunion rumor. "But I feel like I'm so far removed. I'm no help. People asked 'Is this happening?' 'I'm not the person that can help you out. All I know is it's not.'"

Obviously, we now know that it is happening, despite what Wentz said.

Got ya: In the third season of Spike reality show "The Joe Schmo Show," producers gave Rob Belushi (son of Jim Belushi and nephew of the late John Belushi) the task of befriending the series' "star," Chase Rogan — who was unaware the entire premise of the show was a hoax designed to con him. Belushi said their friendship developed easily given Rogan's sense of humor and likability, which made it all the more difficult when it was revealed to Rogan that the show — he thought he was competing with others to be a bounty hunter — was a set-up.

"The scariest moment in the entire show for me was when it was finally revealed to Chase that it was 'all about him,' because I honestly cared about the guy," Belushi said by email Thursday. "When you see it, I think you'll agree it's a frightening, baffling and beautiful moment."

Belushi, a former Lincoln Park, Old Town and Bucktown resident, was quick to defend Rogan against critics, and insisted Rogan is not as gullible as some might think.

"It would take a very self-absorbed person to look around a huge television production and think that the whole thing is about him," said Belushi of the show, which premiered Jan. 8. "Everyone's like, 'I can't believe he's not figuring this out,' but to me it's like he figured out plenty: That there are idiots in the world, and the only way to deal with them is be true to yourself and be compassionate."

About this week:Kristin Cavallari ("The Hills") will promote her Chinese Laundry shoe line Saturday at Von Maur at Yorktown Center in Lombard. … The Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah will perform Friday at The Shrine.